Educating Esme- Third Reading Circle I feel as though Esme is truly an amazing teacher. She goes out of her way for her students. In this chapter Esme brings in a guest speaker who is Native American to go along with the story that her students are reading. Some of the teachers still do not understand how the students behave so well, Ms. Coil is one of those teachers who refuses to understand that Esme has control over her classroom. In this section as part of something new for the children to do, the students created a newsletter. Mr. Turner thought is was a good idea but was irritated by the fact that he was not included like all the other teachers in receiving the newsletter. Because he didn’t get to approve the newsletter he told Esme that she must show Turner parent communications before he could send them out or he will have to write Esme up. I could see where Turner is coming with this because I feel like a teacher would probably have to get permission before sending out something to parents, but if it is a newsletter that the students created, I wouldn’t have thought she would need approval. Esme talked to one of the other teachers, Federman about Turner, she had to “let off some steam”, I do not think that this is a good idea for a teacher to do. I understand that not everyone gets along with their coworkers, because it is sometimes unprofessional to talk about them. It makes it hard for Esme to comfront Turner about how she is feeling even when she wants to. A school environment should always establish good relationships among coworkers because students see what is going on and it may affect the students. Also, because Esme is stressed out over Turner, she makes him mad, causing Mr. Turner to take it out on the other teachers, this is not good either! I like how Esme always has a new technique for her students to learn lessons. For instance, for math, Esme has the students the “Mu-cha-cha” to learn multiplication problems. When Esme talks about the reading groups the children have in her class, It reminds me of the Literature circles that we have in out Literature class. Another interesting issue that came up in this reading is how one of Esme’s students slept at her apartment because their mom was getting a restraining order from her boyfriend who shot her in the arm. The thought that crossed my mind was what Esme did, was it ethical to do this for the student? But. What would I do if I were in here situation and didn’t want to be in a bad home environment? I think Esme should have spoken to Turner about this to see what the best way to do this was, Esme could lose her job for doing what she did. Another thing I noticed is how Esme treats her students when she is in a bad mood, I don’t think that you should take your bad mood out on your students. You never want the students to pick up on if your having a bad day. Lastly, another point I would like to talk about is how Esme went to Mr. Turner about a student who was being disrespectful to her. She wanted to ask Turner for advice on what she should do to handle the students who misbehave and why they do not get punished the same way other students do who are white. Turner’s reasoning was not logical. He feels as though just because they are black, they are excused from this behavior since that is what is expected from them. No matter what the race, gender, or ethnicity, students should all be treated equally.
Reading Circle #3
Educating Esme
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Educating Esme- Third Reading Circle
I feel as though Esme is truly an amazing teacher. She goes out of her way for her students. In this chapter Esme brings in a guest speaker who is Native American to go along with the story that her students are reading. Some of the teachers still do not understand how the students behave so well, Ms. Coil is one of those teachers who refuses to understand that Esme has control over her classroom. In this section as part of something new for the children to do, the students created a newsletter. Mr. Turner thought is was a good idea but was irritated by the fact that he was not included like all the other teachers in receiving the newsletter. Because he didn’t get to approve the newsletter he told Esme that she must show Turner parent communications before he could send them out or he will have to write Esme up. I could see where Turner is coming with this because I feel like a teacher would probably have to get permission before sending out something to parents, but if it is a newsletter that the students created, I wouldn’t have thought she would need approval. Esme talked to one of the other teachers, Federman about Turner, she had to “let off some steam”, I do not think that this is a good idea for a teacher to do. I understand that not everyone gets along with their coworkers, because it is sometimes unprofessional to talk about them. It makes it hard for Esme to comfront Turner about how she is feeling even when she wants to. A school environment should always establish good relationships among coworkers because students see what is going on and it may affect the students. Also, because Esme is stressed out over Turner, she makes him mad, causing Mr. Turner to take it out on the other teachers, this is not good either! I like how Esme always has a new technique for her students to learn lessons. For instance, for math, Esme has the students the “Mu-cha-cha” to learn multiplication problems. When Esme talks about the reading groups the children have in her class, It reminds me of the Literature circles that we have in out Literature class. Another interesting issue that came up in this reading is how one of Esme’s students slept at her apartment because their mom was getting a restraining order from her boyfriend who shot her in the arm. The thought that crossed my mind was what Esme did, was it ethical to do this for the student? But. What would I do if I were in here situation and didn’t want to be in a bad home environment? I think Esme should have spoken to Turner about this to see what the best way to do this was, Esme could lose her job for doing what she did. Another thing I noticed is how Esme treats her students when she is in a bad mood, I don’t think that you should take your bad mood out on your students. You never want the students to pick up on if your having a bad day. Lastly, another point I would like to talk about is how Esme went to Mr. Turner about a student who was being disrespectful to her. She wanted to ask Turner for advice on what she should do to handle the students who misbehave and why they do not get punished the same way other students do who are white. Turner’s reasoning was not logical. He feels as though just because they are black, they are excused from this behavior since that is what is expected from them. No matter what the race, gender, or ethnicity, students should all be treated equally.